Federal officials won't put a dune-dwelling beetle on the endangered species list. An environmental group that petitioned to add the Andrews' dune scarab beetle to the endangered species list failed to sufficiently back its claims, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday. The group said the beetle lives only in the Algodones Dunes in Imperial County, where off-road vehicles are permitted.

As expected, federal regulators at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have placed the Ventura marsh milk vetch on the endangered species list. The plant, once thought to be extinct, was rediscovered in 1997 in Oxnard on the site of a proposed 334-unit housing development called North Shore at Mandalay Bay. The plant is a thick-rooted, reddish-stemmed member of the pea family found only on the site, which is targeted for a cleanup of waste oil. In 1997, 374 plants were counted there.

The government has declared wild chimpanzees an endangered species, a move that will provide additional federal protection for man's closest relative, officials confirmed Friday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had classified the primate as a "threatened" species, but officials said that more protection was needed in view of recent studies documenting a drastic decline in the populations of wild chimps in Africa.

The Senate voted 93 to 2 to extend and strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the law that has become a worldwide model for protecting animals, plants and marine life. Breaking a 4-year impasse, the chamber's vote on the bipartisan reauthorization bill cleared the way for final action this year after House and Senate negotiators work out differences between the chambers on giving the protection effort more money and power.

As expected, federal regulators at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have placed the Ventura marsh milk vetch on the endangered species list. The plant, once thought to be extinct, was rediscovered in 1997 in Oxnard on the site of a proposed 334-unit housing development called North Shore at Mandalay Bay. It is a thick-rooted, reddish-stemmed member of the pea family found only on the site, which is targeted for a cleanup of waste oil. In 1997, 374 plants were counted on the site.

T.s. Tetrataenia, who has lived on a 107-acre site near San Francisco for years, will be accommodated at the $80-million Mori Point Resort Golf Course Hotel and Conference Center planned there. The property is one of the last remaining habitats of tetrataenia, also known as a rare and endangered species of non-poisonous snake. Consulting with world-famous herpetologist, Samuel McGinnis, Florida-based Team Plan Inc. will incorporate habitat mounds for the snake in the overall design.

Some wildlife collectors covet endangered species, illegally snatching them from the wild to savor at home or to trade or sell. "Generally more money is had, ounce for ounce, on endangered plants and animals than on cocaine," maintains Assistant U.S. Atty. Lee Altschuler, who has prosecuted collectors for violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act. "Parrots can go for 10 grand or more." Federal wildlife officials avoid publishing the locations of endangered cacti because collectors dig them up.

The Clinton Administration, seeking to defuse controversy over the renewal of the Endangered Species Act, Tuesday announced a series of initiatives designed to make the protection of rare plants and animals less disruptive for private property owners and communities.

The bald eagle may be soaring back from near-extinction, but hundreds of other imperiled species are foundering, as the federal agency charged with protecting them has sunk into legal, bureaucratic and political turmoil. In the last six years, the Bush administration has added fewer species to the endangered list than any other since the law was enacted in 1973.